Telecommunications relay service allows a sound impaired person, i.e., a hearing or speech impaired individual, to employ a data-type terminal for engaging in a communication session over a telephone network with a sound unimpaired person who does not have a matching terminal but instead has a telephone station set for use in voice based communication. Telecommunications relay service is well known and was formerly called dual party relay (DPR) service. Such service is currently provided by having a live attendant, i.e., a communications assistant, dedicated to each relay session. The live attendant a) reads over the telephone to the unimpaired person text messages that are transmitted to the attendant by the sound impaired person using the data-type terminal and b) transcribes and transmits to the sound impaired person the text of that which he hears being spoken by the unimpaired person. The terminal employed may be a unit such as: a) a personal computer, b) a data terminal or c) a text telephone, which was formerly known as a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD).
It has been recognized in the art that one of the functions performed by the live attendant can presently be automated; namely, that text-to-speech systems can be employed to speak to the unimpaired person the text messages that are input by the sound impaired person. Therefore, the functions performed by such a live attendant are reduced and, correspondingly, the time required to perform the attendant's job is reduced. In fact, such systems can detect a code word used to indicate the end of a text message and only summon the live attendant upon such detection.
As a result, telecommunications relay service systems will shortly be deployed in which a live attendant may be shared over several such relay sessions. If there is more than one live attendant they may be grouped in a pool from which each may be assigned, on an as needed basis, to perform transcription for any relay session that is in progress and for which an automated text-to-speech conversion has just completed. Such attendants may be assigned in a fashion similar to that employed to assign transcribers disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,726 issued on Feb. 7, 1984 to L. R. Kasday, which is incorporated herein by reference.
It is recognized that a delay, lasting up to a minute or longer, may result between the completion of the automated text-to-speech conversion and the assignment of a live shared attendant for transcribing and transmitting that which the unimpaired person says. This delay in assigning an attendant to an established relay session requires the unimpaired person to wait before he speaks after completion of the text-to-speech conversion, until he is certain that one of the shared attendants is assigned to his relay session. If the unimpaired person does not wait until one of the shared attendants is assigned to his relay session, part of what he says will not be heard by the attendant ultimately assigned and will, consequently, be lost. Because the unimpaired person typically wishes to begin speaking as soon as the text-to-speech conversion is completed, which is the natural impulse of persons involved in conversations, such a delay is undesirable. In fact, such a delay can cause a) consternation to the unimpaired person or b) loss of that which the unimpaired person said, should he the forget the existence of such a delay and begin speaking immediately upon completion of the text-to-speech conversion.
In at least one prior art system, the text-to-speech conversion of the code word indicating the end of the textual message is delayed until one of the shared live attendants is assigned to the relay session. Such a system is designed to avoid one of the effects of the delay, that of the speaking by the sound unimpaired person before a live attendant is assigned to the session. The delay itself, however, is not eliminated. In fact, the delay is still perceivable by the sound unimpaired person as the lag between the time he stops hearing the spoken version of the text message and the time he is hears the code word. As a result, such a prior art system merely shifts the point at which the other effect of the delay, the annoyance, is encountered from the time after completion of all text-to-speech conversion but before an attendant is assigned to the time between completion of the text-to-speech conversion of the text message and the text-to-speech conversion of the code word.